Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Bird.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I have been working with textiles since childhood. My mother and I made my school clothes annually until I went away to college. My high school graduation gift was a sewing machine.
In 1987 my husband and I took a sabbatical year. We spent the majority of the time in a small dry cabin inside Denali National Park, Alaska.
On returning to San Diego instead of going back to work with the County of San Diego in an analyst or administrative position, I decided to see how working as an artist/entrepreneur would work out. I have never looked back.
I began making one of a kind women’s clothing, selling at contemporary craft fairs around the country. In 1996 I wrote a “how to” book about my clothing line, Sew A Work of Art-Inside and Out. With the book finished I turned to art quilts, small textile based sculptural work and artist books.
Over the years my style and techniques have grown and changed. I hand dye and print most of the fabrics I use.
Please tell us about your art.
Roald Dahl once said “Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” Part of the magic of art making to me is understanding a scientific basis for the beauty or curiosity I am seeing and experiencing. I look down when I walk. Most of the pictures I take are at a macro level. The patterns, lines, and colors seen close up help define how I translate the science and the beauty into artwork. I like to synthesize the details seen at a walking pace into the imagery of my art quilts.
Time, process and change are persistent themes in my work. Patterns, shapes, and lines in the natural world are infinitely fascinating. Lichens, mosses, ferns, fungi all produce organic structures that speak of the passage of time and the changing landscape over which we humans have much responsibility.
Some of my newest work is looking up at the magic of the migration of birds. I have a new installation at SOKA University which again speaks to time and universal journey. Each fall thousands of cranes fly south from their Arctic tundra nesting grounds to wintering places in California, Texas, and Mexico. In the spring they reverse course going back north to nest again.
I want my viewers to enjoy the images, think about the natural world as something to cherish and to look at their world as they pass – close up.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
Artists have the valuable opportunity to choose how they respond to and comment on the world around them. For the most part, I choose to look at and respond to the natural world, particularly wilderness which must rely on the people who love it, to make supporting commentary.
Occasionally, I will make work that overtly speaks to issues of the day that interest and affects me – wilderness, climate change, and global warming, guns, and violence.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My website is www.birdworks-fiberarts.com
I belong to and frequently exhibit with two local artist groups: Allied Craftsmen of San Diego (alliedcraftsmen.org) and California Fibers (californiafibers.com). I also belong to a small Alaskan artist group, Elements Artist Group, which currently has a traveling collaborative exhibit with the Composing in the Wilderness music program led by Stephen Lias. The website is composinginthewilderness.com/elements. It includes QR codes to listen to the compositions each artist responded to.
Current exhibitions:
August 29-December 7, 2018, “Nature of the Stitch,” an invitational exhibit at Sheehan Gallery, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA.
September 17/18 – January 7/19, “California Fibers, A Matter of Time” at SOKA University, Alisa Viejo, CA
October 11-November 7/18, “Futurecraft, Allied Craftsmen of San Diego,” at Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, Sam Marcos, CA.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.birdworks-fiberarts.com
- Phone: 6192947236
- Email: cbird2400@aol.com
Image Credit:
Eric Nancarrow, Charlotte Bird, Gary Conaughton
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